Italian Military History

Italy's military history spans some 3000 years, from Etruscan and Samnite warriors, to Roman legions, to medieval knights and crusaders, to the condottieri of the Renaissance, to the Arditi shock troops of World War I, the commando frogmen and Folgore paratroopers of World War II, and other elite military units such as the Alpini, Bersaglieri and Carabinieri. This site offers photos, images and historical information pertaining to Italian military history throughout the past 30 centuries.

Thursday, August 30, 2018

General Umberto Nobile (1885-1978)

General Umberto Nobile

General Umberto Nobile (1885-1978) was an Italian aviator, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer who developed and promoted semi-rigid airships during the period between the two World Wars. He is best known as commander of the famous 1926 flight around the North Pole in the airship Norge, piloting the first aircraft to ever reach the North Pole and the first to fly across the polar ice cap from Europe to America.

A popular hero in Fascist Italy, in the 1930's Nobile defected to the Soviet Union, helping to develop the Soviet semi-rigid airship programme, which strongly hurt his reputation in Italy and Europe. Despite this, he was allowed to return to Italy to teach in December 1936, before going to the United States in 1939 to teach aeronautics at Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois.

After World War II he was reinstated and promoted to lieutenant general of the Italian Air Force, but his involvement in Communist politics helped solidify his negative reputation among many western historians.
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